267 Chapter VI Environmental Movements, Policies and Programmes: Case Analysis of POSCO and Tipaimukh Environmentalism is a social as well as a political movement on the issues of environment based livelihood system and environmental governance. Environmentalism in twentieth century emerged with the environment-development debate and effectively focused on the human needs and their satisfaction and it became a critique of modern developmental process. In twentieth century India, particularly since 1960’s, environmentalism became a popular resistance by the local micro movement organizations; on the contrary, green thinking was also reflected through Mrs. Gandhi’s speech in Stockholm conference, 1972. But socially formed grassroots organizations in India made the green thinking very popular in a radical way. The question of natural resource based livelihood system was pivotal to the grassroots organizations. Even in twenty-first century India, many livelihood-based social movements and social movements against modern economic developmental process are indentified as the real foundations of Indian environmentalism or green thought. Environmentalism emphasized on the human responsibility to protect environment and the environmental stewardship. The responsibility indicates the individual responsibility and governmental responsibility. In twenty-first century India, political movement on behalf of the government to protect the natural environment and ecosystem is equally significant like the social movement by the civil society organizations. Twenty-first century environmentalism endeavours to save the humans from the probable danger of modern economic developmental process and simultaneously it shows compassion for other living non-human creatures which would face severe threats as a result of the process of huge industrialization and big dam construction. 268 Each and every nation state takes care of its own natural resources. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), which was constituted in 1985, is the nodal agency in the administrative structure of the Central Government to look after conservation and management of natural resources in the country. At the beginning of twenty-first century, MoEF was entrusted with planning, promotion and coordination and overseeing of the implementation of environmental and forestry programmes.1 Land, water and forests are the prime natural resources which fulfill the social, economic and cultural requirements of the nation. MoEF is concerned about the proper management of these natural resources. Apart from the MoEF, several ministries, boards, departments and organizations have been formed for taking care of India’s biodiversity and natural resources. The chapter is a critical evaluation of the governmental actions to manage India’s natural resources and biodiversity so as to explore the nature of political movement for environmental governance. India’s Land: India: State of Environment 2001, highlights that, out of 328.73 million hectare (mha) India’s total geographical area, 304.89 mha comprise the reporting area and 264.5 mha only is under use for agriculture, forestry, pasture and other biomass production. It was also highlighted that, India supports approximately 16% of the world’s human population and 20% of the world’s livestock population on merely 2.5% of the world’s geographical area.2 It further reports that out of India’s total degraded land (188.1 mha), about 162.4 mha is due to displacement of soil material by water and wind and 21.7 mha is due to in situ processes (physical, chemical and biological processes) as salinity and water-logging. The remaining 4 mha is affected by the depletion of nutrients.3 About the land holdings, National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) data (2003-04) highlights that, about 41.63% of households do not own land other than homestead. While one third of the households are landless, those near to landlessness add up one third more. 60% of 1 UNEP, 2001, India: State of the Environment 2001, United Nations Environment Programme, p. 49. 2 ibid, p. 61. 3 ibid, p. 66. 269 the country’s population has the right over only 5% of country’s land; whereas 10% 4 of the population has control over 55% of the land. Table 1: Distribution of Ownership Holdings of Land in India (2003-04) Category Proportion of Households (%) Proportion of Area Owned (%) Landless 31.12 0 Less than 0.4 ha 29.82 5.11 0.4 – 1 ha 18.97 16.89 1 – 2 ha 10.68 20.47 2 – 3 ha 4.22 13.94 3 – 5 ha 3.06 16.59 5 – 10 ha 1.6 15.21 More than 10 ha 0.52 11.77 Source: Draft National Land Reforms Policy, 24th July, 2013, Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, New Delhi, p. 3 Updating the data, the State of Environment Report: India-2009 reports that, out of total geographical area, 306 mha comprises the reporting area and 146.8 mha is degraded land. An estimated 146.82 mha area suffers from water and wind erosion and other complex problems like alkalinity/salinity and soil acidity due to water- logging.5 About the land use pattern, the Central Statistical Organization data shows the percentage distribution of country’s total land area. The data highlights that the 22.2% land is under forest cover, 13.3% is uncultivable, 3.3% permanent pastures and other grazing land, 1.2% is under tree crops included in net sown area, 5.1% cultivable wasteland, 8.2% fallow land and 46.3% net sown area.6 In twenty-first century India, increasing industrialization, urbanization and dam construction processes are becoming crucial factor for land degradation, especially the protest movement organizations often highlight such factor. Level of urbanization in India increased from 17% in 1951 to 31% in 2011. The number of urban agglomerations, 4 MoRD, 24th July 2013, Draft National Land Reforms Policy, Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, New Delhi, p. 3. 5 MoEF, 2009, State of Environment Report: India-2009, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, New Delhi, pp. 65-66. 6 MoRD, 24th July 2013, Draft National Land Reforms Policy, Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, New Delhi, p. 3. 270 having a population of more than one million, has been increased from 5 in 1951 to 53 in 2011. During 2001-2011, the number of towns in India has increased from 5,161 to 7,935.7 As per 2011 Census, 68.84% of the country’s population lives in 6,40,867 villages and the remaining 31.16% lives in 7,935 urban centers.8 Currently, the initial steps or land acquisition for industrialization as well as for urbanization is uprooting many peasants from the agricultural land, creating agricultural sector as industrial hub or SEZ and lowering the productivity of acquired land; case of industrialization in Singur is a remarkable example. During 2006, about 997 acres of land was acquired forcibly from Singur block of Hooghly district of West Bengal by the Left Front Government unleashing large scale terror and repression for TATA Small Car manufacturing factory. But due to local protests, TATA moved from Singur and went to Gujarat with dubious aim. The highly fertile land of Singur was rendered uncultivable. Ratan Tata once said that, since the lease fees have been paid for two years in advance, the land will remain in possession.9 However, through Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, the newly formed Government of West Bengal led by Trinamool Congress took legal steps to restore the land back to the so called unwilling peasants but such initiative had to be abandoned because of the legal complexities and subject to Supreme Court decisions. Notably, on 31st August 2016, Supreme Court quashed the land acquisition by erstwhile left-front government and ordered to return the land to the farmers. The state governments of India started to pass Special Economic Zone (SEZ) act at their respective administrative boundary, for example the Government of West Bengal passed SEZ Act in December 2003, the Government of Odisha also introduced SEZ in 2003 and implemented Orissa Industrial Facilitation Act in 2004 for accelerating industrialization. With this progress many state governments of India took several policies for land acquisition, even followed repressive measures to grab land from the peasants and daily wage earners. Consequently, the forcible land 7 MoRD, July 2013, National Land Utilization Policy: Framework for Land Use Planning and Management, Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, New Delhi, p. 9. 8 ibid, p, 7. 9 Bhattacharyya, Amit, 2009, Singur to Largarh via Nandigram: Rising Flames of People’s Anger against Displacement, Destitution and State Terror, Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan, Jharkhand, pp. 10-11. 271 acquisition for indudustrialization has aggravated left wing extremmism and radical Maoist movement in many parts of the India.10 Percentage of agrgricultural land is decreasing day-by-daday due to the initiative for industrialization takentak by the State Governments. Notwiwithstanding, according to the data furnished by TheT World Bank, while percentage of agricultural land in India was 60.7 in 200101, the percentage decreased in 2012 anand it became 60.3.11 Therefore, only 0.4% hasas been reduced in that period. The followinging figures show the land use classification in Indidia between 2000- 2001 and 2007-200808. Notable difference can be seen in the lanand used for non- agricultural purpose,se, i. e. while during 2000-2001 it was 8%, duriuring 2007-2008 it became 9%. Therefofore, percentage of non-agricultural land increasased. On the other hand, percentage off ppermanent pastures and other grazing land decrcreased, i. e. while during 2000-2001 it wwas 4%, during 2007-2008 it became 3%.12 Figure - 1 Land Use Classification in India (2000-2001) Forest Non-Agricultural Use Barren and Uncultivable Land 23% Permanent Pastures and 46% Other Grazing Land 8% Miscellaneous Tree Crops and Groves 6% Culturable Wasteland 1% 4% 5% 3% Fallow Land other than 5% Current Fallow Current Fallow Net Area Sown 10 Chakrabarty, Bidyut,t, 2014, Communism in India: Events, Processes andd Ideologies, Oxford University Press, New DeDelhi, p.